Pupford is a pet goods brand founded in Utah in 2017. It is headquartered in Lehi, Utah.
Pupford's best known early product cost nothing. The Lehi company made a free online course called 30 Day Perfect Pup with Zak George, a YouTube dog trainer, and about 20,000 people had taken it by January 2019, Fox 13 reported. By that April, CEO Mike Steele put the count past 40,000. The treats came second.
The company traces itself to a foster home. Cofounder Yukiko Stephan writes on Pupford's site that she has fostered more than 20 dogs for Utah rescues, and that most of a new foster's background is "a complete mystery." Dogster reported that she started the company in 2017 with Eric Stephan and Mike Steele, both digital marketers.
Steele gave Fox 13 the number that set the direction. He said 96 percent of dogs relinquished to shelters have received zero formal obedience training, and that owners who can't pay for a trainer get overwhelmed and give dogs back. His bet was that a free class might keep a few of those dogs home. It is an unusual way to find customers, and it held up well enough that the course now comes with the treats, through a QR code printed on the bag.
The treats are built for repetition, since training means handing out a lot of them. The freeze dried training treats come in under 2 calories each, the product page says. Dogster reported that every training treat uses three or fewer ingredients, sourced in the US except for the rabbit, which comes from France.
The staff page reads like a kennel roster. One team member's 80 pound Labradoodle, Doris, once ate an entire bag of blueberry muffins off the counter, which is either a training failure or an excellent test of motivation. Nearly every bio on the page mentions a dog.
Money arrived in 2022. Peterson Private Equity invested in Pupford, and the co-investors included Zak Zarbock, who founded Zarbee's Naturals, and Bob Rubin, a former CEO of Solid Gold Pet. Steele stayed on as CEO and Jake Young as chief operating officer.
The bigger shelf came a year later. In 2023 Pupford's training and jerky treats went into more than 1,500 PetSmart stores, and Steele said the deal opened the company to "a new group of pup parents." The lineup has since grown to bully sticks and freeze dried dog food.
The honest note is about the label. The product pages say the treats are made in the USA. That is a country, not a kitchen in Lehi, and the pages never say Utah.
None of that changed the original idea. Scan the code on a bag from PetSmart and the free course opens.
Pupford's team page credits a toothless wiener dog named Carl with nicknaming one of its copywriters the Ron Weasley of the dog world.
